


Duplicate

by CurlicueCal



Series: Sons of Fathers [4]
Category: DCU, Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Father-Son Relationship, Feels, Found Family, Future Fic, Gen, Humor, Light Angst, Luthors have issues, Mash-up universe, clonefeels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-15
Updated: 2013-04-15
Packaged: 2017-12-08 13:57:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/762105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CurlicueCal/pseuds/CurlicueCal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kon has a secret.  Lex is clearly the best person to tell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duplicate

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, the comments and feedback on this series have been so awesome; I feel bad for making y'all wait while I work on other stuff. Plus that other project that I was just going to finish up sprouted three extra chapters and thirty more pages so everything's taking even longer than I planned.
> 
> And then I woke up this morning and I was like "Okay, I'mma finish the Lex story today." _And then I did._ I don't know what happened, everything just came unstuck and I've been writing and writing. And now I'm going to post it and go to bed to sleep the sleep of the just.
> 
> I haven't had a chance to give this a onceover for edits so call 'em if you see 'em and I'll check it myself later. Hopefully this will all still make sense when I look at it tomorrow.
> 
> \-----

_A man's desire for a son is usually nothing but the wish to duplicate himself in order that such a remarkable pattern may not be lost to the world. ~Helen Rowland_

_We are all the sons of fathers. -Arthur Penn_

———————————

********* 

Kon-El hunched tighter into himself on the floor in the center of the lab and wished it would stop. 

He wished it would stop even if he had to go back inside the Virtua machine, because maybe when he came out everything would make more sense and he would have more words to explain how _stupid_ they were. And he would be bigger. Maybe when he woke up he would be a grown up and they wouldn't tell him stupid things and then all start yelling. 

He just did what they _said_ , he didn't mean to make the wall break, and now everyone was shouting and running around, and the ceiling was ringing bells, and it was _loud_. 

And now people were coming closer but they had the bad rocks on sticks and he wasn't bad he just did what they _said_. He didn't know why the wall breaked. Broke. He wrapped his arms over his head and shouted at them because it was noisy and it wasn't fair and he was mad. "No! No!no!no!no! _no!_ " 

He grabbed something and threw it. He didn't throw it at the people because that was very bad to do, and he wasn't a bad boy, he was _mad_. The big machine flew far against the wall and exploded into a lot of pieces with a _very_ loud noise. Kon-El stared at it with wide eyes between his crossed arms. 

Uh oh. He broke the wall _and_ the machine. 

The guard people had all pulled back to the other side of the room again, joining the doctors behind the railing with the rocks. They all had big eyes, too, but at least they were more quiet, talking to each other low and very fast. 

He wished they would get Dr. Candy. Dr. Candy would not yell and she would be quiet and listen to him. She would be able to explain that Kon-El had only broken the wall because they were stupid and said to push it as hard as he could. But maybe Dr. Candy was mad at him, too? 

Kon-El really, really hoped The Doctor wouldn't come. The Doctor was scary. 

Suddenly, he heard a man laughing. There was a stranger standing with the other people. He was very big and he had long hair that went everywhere and he didn't look like the doctors or the guards. Kon-El pulled his arms off his head and looked, because new people were interesting, and the man was laughing, so maybe _he_ wasn't mad. The man looked right at Kon-El and smiled very big. His teeth were shiny. 

He walked into the room, past the rock-railing. He didn't even look at the guards and doctors when they talked upset at him. He just looked at Kon-El while he came right up and bent down so he wasn't so high. He put his hands on Kon-El's shoulders, holding on. 

"Hello, Kon." 

Kon-El stared at him in amazement. He wasn't wearing a bad rock. _Everybody_ wore a little bitty rock on the card around their neck. Except the man didn't. He was close like when the nicest doctors and guards gave him hugs or let him hold hands but there wasn't any tummy ache. "My name's Kon-El," he said. 

"I know. I named you. It's a very special name." 

"It's Kryptonian." 

"Yes. Kon means king. Conqueror. Do you know what 'conquer' means?" 

Kon-El's forehead wrinkled. "To defeat or subdue by force." That was many big words. 

"And do you understand what that means, Kon?" 

"Uh-uh." 

"It's a name to live up to. It's a name you have to be very strong for." 

Being strong reminded Kon-El, and he shot a guilty look behind him. "I broke the wall." 

The man smiled big again, with lots of teeth. "I saw. It was very impressive." 

Well. That was a much better reaction than the stupid doctors. "They _said_ to push as hard as I could and I pushed and the wall broke!" 

"Very silly of them." 

Kon-El broke into a big smile. This man was _much_ smarter than the stupid doctors. The falling wall had surprised him and made a _lot_ of noise and then they had all started yelling and running around and they had got the bad-rocks when he was _not_ bad. He faltered a bit. "Am I in trouble?" 

The man looked at him very stern. "You're not afraid are you?" 

Kon-El bit his lip. "No." 

The smile came back, like a prize, and the man squeezed his fingers into Kon's shoulders. "They're only human. They don't understand. Your strength increased faster than they predicted, faster than they planned for, and they panicked. They weren't prepared." 

Kon-El didn't understand all the words, but the man was looking around the room at the other people as he stood up again. He pulled Kon-El to stand up with him, still looking at the other people with his teeth showing. A hand took the back of Kon-El's neck, holding hard. 

"They should have known better than to underestimate you. You're my grandson. You're a _Luthor/ _."__

************** 

Kon hesitated before the roof's security door. The lead shutters hadn't come down for the night, but the penthouse was dark and unlit. It was late. Just because Lex had so far seemed to keep as crazy hours as Kon didn't mean he never went to bed at a reasonable hour. 

He had to sleep sometime. 

Probably. 

He could always go hit a few clubs or go flying for a few hours or even - gasp - go back to Smallville and actually get some sleep like a reasonable person himself. 

Only thing was his stupid brain had woken him up over and over every night for a week and he was really getting tired of it. His subconscious was kind of an asshole. 

With a grimace Kon reached out and placed his hand against the security plate. The door beeped and clicked open. See? Practically an engraved invitation. 

Entering the darkened flat he threw his bag on the coffee table by the couch. Since Mercy didn't materialize in a cloud of stony watchfulness he ventured a guess that the penthouse was empty. 

Kon wandered curiously through empty rooms, sketched by the moon in shades of grey. Living room, kitchen, guest bath, room that could only be described as a library even though, really, what kind of penthouse had a library? Down the hall other, more private living spaces that Kon hadn't seen and didn't feel welcome to explore. Lex's office was open, though, and Kon had been in there once before. 

The wide expanse of the dark mahogany desk made an impressive display laid out in front of the window that comprised the entire back wall of the office. Frankly, if it were him he'd scrap the power play and turn the desk around to face the window because why suffer the claustrophobia of an enclosed space when you had a giant cityscape view _right there_? 

He sighed and flopped into the desk chair. It was comfy. For some reason that surprised him. Lex was... not a man that cut himself any slack. And he held everyone around him to the same unyielding standards. Probably at least part of the reason he and Clark couldn't be in the same room without looking like they were about to supernova into black holes of tension. They were both their own harshest critics. 

It didn't really explain why Kon kept coming back here. Clark thought he was doing some sort of getting in touch with his heritage thing. Clark spent a lot of time worrying about roots and belonging and who he was. Clark and Lex spent seriously too much time being introspective and angsty. Another thing they had in common. Thank god being Clark's clone didn't mean being Clark. 

The computer on the desk was a single flat monitor, flanked by two blank rectangular panels that seemed to hover in the air. The desk was scrupulously neat—the only other loose items were strictly decorative, none of them typical office knick knacks, all of them interesting. Kon picked up a sphere of glass encasing a tiny, bird-like skull. The rows of sharp teeth made him think of dinosaurs, and, considering a few of Clark’s stories, he wasn’t going to lay odds that it wasn’t genuine. Possibly collected from a living specimen. Setting the bauble aside, he picked up a silver disk that looked vaguely mechanical. He experimented with pressing the three buttons in the center, but it seemed disinclined to do anything. 

Placing that back as well, Kon leaned back in the office chair and started flipping drawers open. Documents, files, a paperback novel, a small amber stone, bulbous with fringed edges. When he picked it up and turned it over in his hands it started glowing faintly. Kon flinched and fumbled it. The stone clattered noisily back into the drawer, the glow fading out slowly. He shoved the drawer closed. Glowing rocks did not put him in a happy mental place. Even pretty non-meteor ones. 

The next few drawers were locked, and Kon amused himself pressing his thumb to the access panels to just to hear them chirp denials at him. The final drawer he tried beeped politely and slid open. Whoa. Okay. 

Rolling the chair back he bent to retrieve the contents. 

\-------------------- 

Lex paused in the doorway to consider the spectacle of a teenage boy calmly rifling through his desk drawers. He wondered if Kent teenagers were born with this blithe sense of entitlement to all his personal affairs or if it was something he cultivated in them. Teenage boys showing up in his home at all hours of the night. For a moment, he couldn’t help overlaying the image of a different boy, a different place. Ten years apart and the same situation, the same _face_ , in a setting so far removed as to be farcical. Surely this was too ridiculous a convergence to lay at coincidence's door. _Karma's got a sick sense of humor and Destiny's a bitch._

After a moment, he cleared his throat. 

Kon looked up, and gave him a smile, completely unabashed to be caught snooping. “Hey. I wasn’t sure if you’d still be up.” 

“I had some business downstairs. You’re here very late, Kon. Do you need something?” 

“Huh? No.” Kon leaned back in Lex’s desk chair, turning some small object over in his hands. “Just couldn’t sleep. I can go if you want.” 

Lex raised his eyebrows but only said dryly, “I left the door unlocked. Please feel free to make yourself at home.” His eyes flickered pointedly over the disturbed desk and then back to Kon. 

The kid shrugged and grinned, shameless. “I got bored. You have some interesting stuff in your office. Is that a real dinosaur skull?” 

“Mm. Compsognathus. It’s an alt-dimensional specimen, though, not local.” 

Kon looked like he was silently laughing. “Wow, that was extremely informative; I totally feel enlightened,” he chirped brightly. 

Lex let his lips curve up. “Are you looking for a lecture in paleontology or in trans-dimensional physics?” 

“Ugh. Neither, please.” Kon made a face. “It’s like two AM. You’re not allowed to lecture me after midnight. It’s just like for gremlins.” 

“I must have missed that memo.” 

“It’s true. I’ll lose all my fur and mutate into a hideous monster.” 

Amused, Lex strolled forward, leaning his hip on the desk. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He flashed his teeth. “In case it becomes useful.” 

Kon laughed, unbothered by the ominous undertones, and Lex wondered for the hundredth time whether the easy dismissal was a gesture born of ignorance or confidence. Surely not trust. The boy was brash but not stupid. Very occasionally Lex thought he could even discern a flash of something calculating far back in those green eyes. 

“Okay,” Kon was saying, “but I warn you it only leads to an alarming but wacky rampage through Metropolis until my nicer double saves the day.” A beam of moonlight bounced around the room as Kon fiddled absently with whatever he was holding—the boy never quite seemed to stop moving. Lex was learning to track his moods by the level of restless energy emitted. 

“Hey, this is pretty cool.” Kon lifted the object closer to his face, and Lex felt a disorienting drop in his stomach as he recognized it, like an elevator descending a little too rapidly for comfort. “Is this a coin?” 

He must have been silent for a moment too long, because Kon looked up from the watch questioningly. Lex didn’t think he’d let any reaction onto his face, but something must have shown there anyway. Kon’s expression slid from open and curious into guarded caution. 

“Er. The drawer unlocked. When I touched it,” he was saying now, sounding uncomfortable and speaking a little too rapidly. “I didn’t think—I can put it back, sorry.” 

“It’s a Napoleon franc.” Lex checked his posture, face, demeanor again, and found them smooth and controlled. Good. “I did say I’d leave doors unlocked when you were welcome. I’d just forgotten…that drawer is keyed to a specific bloodline, actually. A bit of a sentimental affectation I suppose.” He offered a smile, spread his hands, self-deprecating. Kon was still watching him, green eyes intent and unreadable in the moonlight. Straightening, Lex paced around the desk to look more closely at the silver watch in Kon’s hands, the coin face a muted gleam beside the band’s brightness. “My mother gave me that watch before she died.” 

“Grandma Lillian?” 

The words, careful and surprisingly vulnerable, were a sharp sweet shock, almost painful, like fine whiskey. This boy always seemed capable of spinning Lex in circles. “Yes, that’s right. There’s a picture in there as well. You didn’t see it?” 

“No.” Kon’s eyes shot to the drawer, but he hesitated, not even reaching out, like he might get his hand smacked for touching. His thumb rubbed back and forth on the watch band almost unconsciously, Lex noted, and he was sitting lightly enough in the chair that Lex wouldn’t have been surprised to see him start hovering. 

Kneeling by the desk, Lex reached into the drawer, and pulled out the silver-framed picture, offering it silently. 

Kon came down off the chair beside Lex, and took it in equal silence, leaning close to the image, scrutinizing it like he was looking for the answer to a riddle. “She’s pretty.” 

“I think so.” 

“Gramps never talked about her.” 

Lex drew in a slow, even breath. “Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.” Kon was quiet again, eyes still tracing the lines of a face he’d never seen. “Would you like to hear about her?” 

He looked up at Lex then, green eyes startled and careful. “I. Yeah. If you don’t mind. I mean, I’m not really—And she’s your mom, so—” Kon halted. 

“It’s fine, Kon. And she’s your grandmother.” Lex settled a little more, folding his legs and leaning back against the desk. His suit was going to crease terribly. But it was late, in a nearly empty building, and here in the privacy of his office, sitting on the floor behind his desk with this strange alien clone-child he’d somehow acquired it seemed like it might not matter if he presented himself less than perfectly. That was an untruth, of course. It always mattered. Still. Informality had its place and usefulness as well. 

“What was she like?” 

Lex leaned back and ran a hand over the smooth curve of his skull as he gathered his thoughts. Stopping the gesture at the back of head he compromised with his restlessness by lacing his fingers in his lap. “Passionate. Caring. Smart enough to be intensely unhappy with her situation later in life. She was...ferociously devoted to the people she loved.” 

As Lex spoke, Kon listened with solemn attention, almost sharp in his focus, for once an audience devoid of interruptions or byplay. In the strange stillness of the moment, Lex found himself drawn out to talk about things he hadn’t spoken of or even thought of in years. 

About early childhood memories, and her support after the meteor shower, when his father had been so embarrassed by him and his life had seemed an endless stream of tests and lab reports. And later, when she had been increasingly sick, and he had been called home from school. Lex shied away from anything to do with Julian or the worst moments of his mother’s depression, but he talked a little about time, facing his mother’s impending death, and how she had still been trying to look after him, see him safe and sheltered. 

About how the watch had been a reference to David’s painting of Napoleon’s coronation, an affirmation of his mother’s belief in him, a reminder that she would be with him even when she was gone, as the Napoleon had had his mother painted into the scene, even though she couldn’t be present. 

Kon had gone back to turning the watch over in his hands as the conversation progressed. When the silence stretched, Kon finally spoke again. “How come you don’t wear it?” 

“Why don’t I,” Lex corrected, almost absently, and then pressed his lips together in thought. How much to say? He suspected he had already shown too much. Certainly more than he intended. He watched Kon sideways, from the corner of his eye, turning the watch over and over like he could read a story with his fingertips. One more answer. “I suppose I stopped wearing it when I stopped being certain my mother would be proud to see what I had accomplished. I’m not ashamed of my life. I wouldn’t change my choices. But at day’s end I find that whatever my intent, I am very much more Lionel’s son than Lillian’s.” 

Kon’s eyes turned to meet him again, and Lex didn’t see anything he expected. Neither comfort nor judgment, just a strange sort of consideration. It occurred to Lex, not for the first time, that despite his more human genetics, Kon seemed infinitely more alien than his counterpart in moments like these. Lex couldn’t interpret anything in that familiar face. The gaze broke abruptly, Kon turning to stare out the window into the light-sprinkled darkness of Metropolis at night. As a not uncomfortable quiet fell over the room, Lex felt his muscles unwind slightly, feeling like he’d been granted a respite. 

“Can I tell you a secret?” 

Or not. Now Lex felt like he’d just had his finger shoved in an electrical socket. Then again, probably nothing could prepare him to hear that particular sentence, coming from a face eerily identical to a teenaged Clark. 

“…yes?” he offered, trying to modulate his voice into something encouraging rather than just faint with surprise. 

Kon wasn’t looking at him, his arms crossed in front of him to grip his ankles where his legs were pretzeled under him. He wasn’t touching the ground. His whole body looked coiled, condensed, and his voice when he finally spoke was equally tense, low and careful. 

"Sometimes I miss him.” 

One green eye flicked over to glance at Lex from under dark bangs before turning back out the window. His head dropped a little closer to his chest, and Lex caught a flash of teeth in the dim light, an uneasy grin. 

“That's pretty fucked up, right?" 

Lex drew in a breath, because, yes, it probably was fucked up, but it was a level and quality of fucked up that he was intimately familiar with. “We’re speaking about Lionel?” he asked, to clarify, and to buy himself a little time to settle the storm of his thoughts. 

“Yeah. The guy that made me in a lab so he could have a go at replacing a famous superhero and lied and stole and killed and made everyone’s lives miserable for years and then died and left me with those–“ 

“Kon.” Lex didn’t raise his voice against the tide of words, but they halted instantly. Wide green eyes turned on him. “May I return the secret?” 

“…okay.” 

Last truth, and most dangerous, but maybe sharing it would be some small payment toward his sins. Lex laid the words down carefully. “Sometimes I miss him, too.” 

Kon blinked at him. 

“The man who had me because he want an heir, a perfect little duplicate of himself; who was humiliated by my mutation and by every difference between us that he perceived as weakness; and who hurt me and people I cared about over and over and over again in the name of making me strong or furthering the family name or just because he damn well wanted to.” 

Kon was still staring at him, fixated, frozen like he’d encountered some dangerous, legendary creature and didn’t want to move and frighten it off or draw its attention. 

“I think we never outgrow wanting our parents to be proud of us.” 

“…oh,” Kon said. His mouth worked silently for a few minutes, and then he shook his head and hugged his knees to his chest, ducking his head. When he looked up again, he was smiling. It quirked up unevenly, a slanted, sideways grin that looked more than a little sardonic, but it was a real one. “So you’re saying we’re both weird.” 

Lex let his own lips turn up, filling his voice with dry humor. “Yes, Kon, that is precisely the interpretation I was leading to. Thank you for that concise revision of my words; the message is much clearer now.” 

Kon was snickering non-stop, now, and Lex reached over carefully and smacked him lightly on the shoulder. He rolled over sideways in the air, and started snorting, sounding almost giddy with the relief of pent up tension. 

Lex shook his head, feeling strange and light himself, and stretched away from the desk he was leaning against. His spine snapped and popped. “I am too old to be sitting on the floor like this.” 

“You’re, like, thirty-something,” Kon said, tipping back upright to give Lex a scornfully dismissive look. 

“Thirty-three.” 

“Oh my god, you’re ancient. Do you need a doctor? I can fly you to the hospital. Or maybe the morgue.” 

Lex rolled his eyes. “I’m old in experience,” he corrected, primly. 

“Okay well, if it’s experience that counts I must be like a mummy. Because this one time I met this girl and she had this boyfriend and—“ 

“—if this story is leading where I think it is, be aware I will retaliate in kind.” 

Kon made an aghast face. “Ew, no, I don’t wanna hear it. Can’t you just pretend to let me brag?” 

“You’re sixteen. Your sexual exploits could fill a thimble. And I am not remotely interested in them.” Lex smiled blandly. “I have security personnel to keep track of those things.” 

Kon’s joking aghast face transformed to a genuine one. “Augh, why would you do that? No, actually, why would you _tell_ me that? I’m am never ever going to be able to get it on ever again, oh my god.” 

Lex let his smile sharpen into a something shark-like. “Consider it my contribution to your sexual welfare. Prudence is a healthy trait to cultivate, especially in adolescent years.” 

“You are an evil man.” 

Lex shook his head again and got to his feet, pushing off the mahogany surface of the desk. “It could be worse. Do you know Lionel slept with every one of my girlfriends?” 

The contortions Kon’s face twisted into made Lex wish for a camera. Maybe he could pull something off the security feed later? “Holy crap, he totally _would_ , that is so awful, oh god, augh no, I don’t wanna think about this anymore; can we change the subject, like, yesterday?” 

“If you like. I have a bit more work to do this evening.” Lex busied himself brushing his pants off and straightening out the cuffs of his shirt. “If you like, you could accompany me down to the lab. You might find it interesting.” 

“Really?” 

Lex finally pulled his eyes away from what he was doing. He wasn’t sure how to interpret Kon’s expression. “Only if you want to.” 

Kon considered him a moment longer before breaking out into an easy grin. “Yeah, sure. That would be cool. I’m probably not going to sleep tonight, anyway.” 

Lex thinned his lips. “You should sleep more. You wouldn’t have trouble staying awake in class if you weren’t up at all hours of the night.” 

“Yeah, whatever, Mr. Pot. And my grades are fine. My grades are great even. Which is a fact you know very well. You and your creepy sex spies.” 

”Knowledge is power. I assure you I have your best interests in mind.” 

”You are so fucked up.” 

\------------ 

They met Mercy by the elevator, and Kon waved a friendly greeting while she pretended he didn’t exist. “Doesn’t Lex ever let you sleep?” 

“Of course she gets to sleep. She sleeps when I sleep. And she trades shifts with Hope and Charity. You’ve met Hope.” 

“You gave them theme names. That is so lame. And also sad. But mostly lame.” 

The elevator chimed as they arrived on the appropriate floor, and Mercy looked up from murmuring into a communicator. “It’s clear, sir.” 

“Thank you, Mercy,” Lex said, pressing his palm to the pad on the elevator. The doors opened onto an empty robotics laboratory. This time of night it was a simple matter to ensure excess personnel were sent home and secure the facility. 

Kon drifted out ahead of them, already looking around interestedly. 

Lex hung back and watched him, trying to discern any sign of nerves or lingering emotional upset from the conversation earlier. But if he was still feeling it, there was no trace left in his demeanor. He seemed completely engaged in his current explorations. 

Kon was almost a foil for his progenitor that way. As a teenager, Clark Kent had made secrets of every detail of his life while wearing his innermost feelings on his sleeve. Kon seemed to lay out all the facets of his life for inspection, while keeping the core of his thoughts and feelings buried so deep under charm and carefree attitude Lex wasn’t certain he wasn’t just imagining the shapes moving under the surface. 

But that was a gross over-simplification for poetic purposes. Sloppy thinking, which could only lead to sloppy conclusions. 

Kon looked up from poking at a tiny prototype helperbot Lex’s scientists were working on. He’d tried to press the button to turn it on, but Mercy had swatted his hand away, and was now standing over him, glowering. “What?” 

Lex pulled himself free from his brooding. “I keep thinking that your…guardian would not be pleased with this particular…situation.” 

Kon laughed. “Yeah, Clark’d have kittens. I think labs make him uncomfortable.” 

“But not you?” 

He shrugged. “I dunno. Not really? I get kinda claustrophobic sometimes, but that happens everywhere. Anyway, most of the people I knew growing up were scientists or guards. I like them.” Kon threw a flirty smile at a stony-faced Mercy. She didn’t acknowledge him with so much as blink. He kept grinning, undeterred. “How’d you start working for Lex, Mercy?” 

Lex was expecting further stone-walling, so he found himself more than a little flummoxed when Mercy said tersely, “He saved me.” 

Kon’s demeanor went a touch less playful and touch more sincere. “Is that why you look out for him so well?” 

“It’s my job.” Her flat tone made it clear that she considered that the final and comprehensive answer to the question. Lex could also recognize the signs of her increasing disquiet. Whatever had prompted her to answer Kon, she was clearly outside her comfort zone. An uncomfortable Mercy generally led to trauma for everyone in the vicinity. Often of the blunt kind. 

“And she is excellent at it,” he cut in firmly, closing the subject. “Kon, why don’t you look around some more while I wrap up my business.” Lex paused, and tipped his head, searching for appropriately delicate phrasing. “…I won’t ask you to keep any secrets you aren’t comfortable with, but much of the technology here is proprietary and under development. I’d appreciate it if you’d use discretion about anything you choose to share outside this room.” 

Kon glanced around the room again in surprise, and then looked at Lex seriously. “All right. I’ll remember.” 

Lex left him to explore, with Mercy to ensure he didn’t release any rogue machinery or cause anything to explode. He’d probably need to give her a bonus for tolerating babysitting duty. Meanwhile Lex had work to do, and one particular task he wanted to take care of while Kon was distracted. 

\------------------ 

Kon yawned dramatically, looking not a bit tired as they re-entered the penthouse. “Oh man, remind me not to keep you company while you ‘just finish up a few things’ ever again.” 

“It was only an hour,” Lex said mildly. In all honestly it was about half an hour longer than he had intended. 

“Whatever. You’re secretly a robot, aren’t you? That’s why you never sleep. Poor Mercy.” 

Lex rubbed wearily at the bridge of his nose, ignoring the banter. “Get home before you worry your grandparents.” 

“I left a note.” 

“Get home anyway.” He accompanied Kon up to the roof, and then stopped him at the edge. “Before you go. This is for you.” 

Kon turned, reaching out automatically to accept the offering. When he saw the item pressed into his palm, he drew back in surprise. “Grandma Lillian’s watch?” 

Lex watched as Kon looked from the watch to the giver and back in uncertainty, careful to keep his own emotions off his face. “I’d like you to have it.” 

“But she gave it to you.” 

“And now I’d like to give it to you. If you want it. I think she would have liked you very much.” Lex thought she would have loved Kon like an avenging angel and fought for him like a lioness, but he didn’t think Kon would be comfortable with that intensity of emotion suddenly directed at his way. 

Kon stared at the watch a few moments longer, and then closed his hand around it almost compulsively. He turned a face toward Lex that still seemed uncertain and even a little wary. “If you want it back just let me know.” 

“It’s yours, Kon.” 

Kon shook his head, but not exactly like he disagreed. “Okay. I’ll take care of it.” He fastened the silver band on his wrist and then closed his hand around it again. When he lifted his hand away he turned his hand back and forth, looking at it. Lex wondered if he’d done something with his tactile telekinesis. 

He turned a smile in Lex’s direction, a little more cautious than usual, but maybe a little more real. “Thanks, Lex.” 

Lex smiled back. He didn’t feel it necessary to mention the tracer he’d installed in the watch earlier in the night. He had his own ways of looking after his family. And if they made him more like his father at the end of the night, he still wouldn’t alter his decisions. He was not ashamed. 

“Good night, Kon.” 

As he watched Kon fly away, Lex already knew he’d have a replicate of the watch commissioned for himself. Superficially the same as the original, but a thing of completely new materials and meaning. Most likely it would only go back in the drawer, but the symbolism of the thing…appealed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> I think the next story will be the plotline with Tim's introduction. So that's a thing.


End file.
